Photographers

Guillermo Cervera

BIOGRAPHY

Guillermo Cervera (b. 1968) is a freelance photojournalist who has documented armed conflict and social issues for the international press for over 20 years.

Growing up in Madrid, Cervera first discovered the joy of photography when he opened a box of Playboy magazines his father had brought back from a sojourn in the United States. When his father found out, he emptied the box of Playboys and replaced them with issues of National Geographic. It was in those old magazines that he first glimpsed images of surfing that left him awe-struck.

Cervera eventually began surfing but did not pursue photography immediately. Instead, he came to the United States to study aerospace engineering. While in college, he discovered that photography had a calming effect on him. Restless by nature, he would emerge relaxed after hours in the darkroom. He had returned to Madrid in the early 1990s when a writer friend suggested they go to Bosnia to cover the conflict. He sold his motorcycle and headed off with his cameras. He and his friend stayed for two weeks before returning to Spain but Cervera soon found himself headed back to the war to understand how people – despite all the potential afforded to them – could resort to such insanity.

Cervera has since covered major world events including the Tamil Tigers separatist militant movement during Sri Lanka’s Civil War in 2008, the rise of capitalism in communist Cuba, the Libyan and Egyptian uprisings in 2011, daily life in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine and the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

Cervera’s photographs are regularly published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Marie Claire, The Guardian, Paris Match, Rolling Stone, La Vanguardia, ABC and El Mundo, El Pais, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal among others, and have been exhibited in galleries in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain.

Flow

April 4, 2018 – May 29, 2018

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

GUILLERMO CERVERA

October 24, 2014 – January 4, 2015

Guillermo Cervera’s first solo exhibition in New York included selections from twenty years of documenting armed conflict and social issues globally as well as work featured in the HBO documentary, THE LAST PATROL.

Cervera has covered major world events including the Bosnian War in 1993, the Tamil Tigers separatist militant movement during Sri Lanka’s Civil War in 2008, the rise of capitalism in communist Cuba, the Libyan and Egyptian uprisings in 2011 and daily life in Afghanistan. In 2014, he covered the war in Ukraine and the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip.